Fourth Amendment
U.S. v. Monroe Case
Monroe moved to suppress the initial email messages and attachments as having been obtained in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. He asserted that the system administrators exceeded their authority in opening 59 of his emails because they essentially moved into a law enforcement role in so doing. The court disagreed. It found that the accused had no reasonable expectation of privacy in emails that were clogging the government server. Even if Monroe had some expectation of privacy, the system administrators could access the material in the email box, as long as they acted within the scope of their official duties. The court found, the system administrators "were doing what they had a responsibility to do in order to insure the base network was operating at maximum efficiency, and all their actions were taken to achieve that end." The system administrators were not acting as agents of law enforcement.
D